In shipping and displaying products, particularly in a retail setting, it is desirable to have a container which is easy to pack, sturdy and fully enclosed for protection of contents during storage and shipping, and also suitable for display at a retail site. For example, it is beneficial to have a container which allows a customer at a retail site to easily reach into the container and remove products for purchase. Of course, the access opening through which a consumer can access the products must also be closed during shipment and storage to prevent spilling of the product out of the container. This has resulted in the development of a variety of containers which are configured to be convertible from a shipping configuration to a display configuration, which permits the converted container to be placed directly upon a shelf, or floor display, without having to remove the individual product items from the container. One approach is to provide the container with removable portions that, when removed, create apertures through which customers may then help themselves to the products within the converted container. An alternative approach is to provide the container with a door that can be opened to provide access to the products within the container.
Such convertible containers represent a challenge in that they must be readily convertible into a form presentable to customers, while at the same time maintaining certain shipping performance characteristics, suitable for the shipment of non-self-supporting or even fragile products. Prior attempts at providing a displayable shipping container may suffer from a number of disadvantages. For example, prior displayable shipping containers often are lacking in the necessary shipping performance characteristics. Other displayable shipping containers are labor intensive to assemble or require expensive customization of automated equipment for assembly. And still other containers require excessive materials (e.g., doors formed from two panels such that the door has the thickness of two panels) or, in some cases, extraneous components (e.g., a tie or a wrap) to secure the container.